very sad - RIP Don Cornelius

'Soul Train' host Don Cornelius found dead
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BTW

I don't know what happened with Blogger lately, but they seem to have changed their interface and have made it more cumbersome, less user-friendly (why is it that any changes made to an online company make it less user-friendly?), and just more difficult to read and navigate. Absolutely horrible!

Blogger - change back to your previous, sane layout! This makes me want to stop using Blogger altogether!

Acton Town/Party Talk at the Beauty Bar, Las Vegas Saturday Jan 28

Even though I am now starting to play out in Las Vegas, it still takes a lot for me to check out new bands in the city, even on weekend nights. But, I finally got off my butt and went down to the Beauty Bar for this Saturday night free show. I have been meaning to check out Acton Town since becoming Facebook friends with the guitarist's father, John Fallon, who was in the 80's mod/psych/garage band the Steppes. I still find it odd that we both ended up in Vegas but never knew each other.

Anyway, this evening at the Beauty Bar was some kind of multi-media event with bands, DJs, fashion show and gawd knows what else. A ton of people came out for this and it was one of the more crowded shows I've been to in a long time. The live music was all provided by young bands (I think all of the musicians were under 21), but they were all influenced by early punk, mod & garage groups, which makes me feel better about the future of live music.

I arrived in time to see a couple of songs by Party Talk - not the best name for a band - who are a 3 piece that sounded to me like a more garagey take on "Boys Don't Cry"-era Cure. I always dug that sound and the sharp, piercing guitar, strong rhythm section, good vocals and rockin' tunes certainly made me want to see and hear more from these cats.

I

In between bands the awful DJ played some horrendous, mindless techno crap with soul-shatteringly loud bass, making it impossible to relax and positively impossible to carry on a conversation. Maybe I'm just too old, but I still want to hear music when I go to a club - not just a pulsing bass with nothing notable or memorable going along with it. OK, that's my old man rant...

In any case, Acton Town came up next and immediately stood out as a stylish trio of neo-mods with songs combining punk, mod & garage - not unlike bands did in the late 70's/early 80's. Unfortunately, the set was marred by a terrible mix - the Beauty Bar is not known for great sound - with Anthony Vitiello's bass overpowering and drowning out everything else. Thankfully, he is a good player and had a cool fuzz-driven tone, but it would have been nice to hear the rest of the band! Drummer Ron Paul Gavino & guitarist Cromm Fallon looked sharp in their suits, shared vocal duties and pummeled their respective instruments with tons of energy and precision, and despite the muddy mix you could tell that there were gems waiting to be heard in there. I will definitely make the effort to see them at a venue with better sound.

Again, it's good to know that at least some of the youth of Las Vegas are working to make a better music scene, despite the lack of venues that cater to all-age shows. Checks these cats out whenever ya can!

Lexicon Devil – The Fast Times and Short Life of Darby Crash and the Germs – Brendan Mullen, Done Bolles & Adam Parfrey

I hesitated to even read this book for a long time because I was never all that interested in the cult of Darby. To me, he was that obnoxious drunk guy that kept asking for beer or a Bowie button or some such nonsense. I could never understand how anyone could be won over by his juvenile tactics – though, obviously, many people were. I was extremely surprised to actually read his lyrics, which are quite good, because in person he came off as a stoned, brainless, child-like idiot. As entertainingly anarchic as the Germs were live, they were not a quality band in any sense of the word – other than they were so bad that they helped to destroy the concepts of what a band could & should be. But, after reading Alice Bag’s fine book on the LA punk scene, I got nostalgic for the time (though I was never heavily into the scene) and thought I would see what these cats had to say.

Apparently, the initial idea was for Germs drummer Don Bolles to write the book, but, as anyone who knows Don would realize, that is probably unrealistic for someone with his amount of ADD (and I say that as someone who likes Don personally quite a bit). Brendan came in to rescue the book and publisher Parfrey flushed it out a bit.

Whether due to his contributions to the book or not, Bolles actually comes off as one of the more likeable and brighter members of this contingent. Everyone continually talks of Darby’s intelligence but he gives no sign of it in his words or actions here (other than, as I said, in his above-average lyrics). Lorna Doom is mostly just mentioned in passing and Pat Smear seems to be Crash’s accomplice in obnoxious antics. Again, in comparison to Alice Bag’s book, where she came off as a smart, engaging person who would be cool to hang out with, no one in this story is compelling in any way, and I am glad that I never did fall in with that crowd.

Considering the cast of characters, it is surprising that the Germs ever got it together enough to even play live shows (though these were hardly “together” in any normal sense of the word), much less to record. So, their short career and early demise were to be expected. I do find it funny that one of the issues leading to their breakup was that the gay lead singer thought that the straight drummer wearing a dress was so offensive that it warranted kicking him out of the band (or at least was indicative of the differences in direction and attitude). Don started playing guitar in drag in Vox Pop, which Darby considered to be a joke band, though I think it a much better - and far more entertaining - group than the Germs ever were. But, the Germs were never able to properly replace Don and fell apart and Crash’s attempts at a post-Germs band apparently were even more dismal (I never saw the Darby Crash Band myself, but even the group members say that it is better off forgotten).

Of course, Darby then committed suicide (some say in a weird homage to Bowie’s song “Five Years”) and created his bizarre legend and left as his legacy the jock/homophobic/brainless hardcore scene. Odd coming from a gay, supposedly intelligent young poet, but I guess you don’t always get to pick what comes in your wake.

While this does seem to be a pretty truthful story of the LA punk/hardcore scene, there is little that is fun or entertaining here, so it is not a light-hearted read or a tale that would make much of anyone wish that they were there. But if you are interested in learning how the LA punk scene (or the part of it that begat hardcore) started, this seems like a good place.

Mott the Hoople - Under Review (DVD)

This DVD is simply an overview of Mott's career as told by rock writers and fans (including some famous, such as Mick Jones of the Clash) as well as a bit of commentary and even tour footage by later keyboardist Morgan Fisher. There are short pieces of later interviews with a couple of the band members, including Ian, from some previous TV show, but nothing done specifically for this DVD. As such, there is not much here that any fan does not already know. There are other Mott DVDs out there that I have yet to see and I knew that this did not get very good reviews, but it was cheap - and rightfully so. I don't think that this would make a fan out of anyone who wasn't already and this won't tell any fan anything new. There are some nice snippets of live shows, but all too short. Hopefully, someone else has done this band up right and has included band interviews and video footage of full songs. Pass on this one unless ya see if super cheap.

another talent gone - RIP Etta

Legendary blues singer Etta James dies in Calif.
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Shillaly Brothers - Too Drunk To Fight

I became friends with Shillaly Brothers lead singer, John Duffy, back when we played with Jeff Dahl for a while in the early-to-med '00's (with great drummer, Dave Nazworthy). John had been an LA stalwart for many a years by then and had plenty of r'n'r tales of everything from seeing Mott the Hoople to drug-addled debauchery with Dahl's Powertrip. These days he has toned down his act a bit and the Shillaly Brothers perform a terrific take on traditional Irish music (Duffy was always proud of his heritage).

The group uses acoustic instruments - mandolin, bouzouki, tin whistle, ukulele, acordian, banjo, etc - to create an atmosphere of an Irish pub, regardless of where you are when you hear it! Duffy has an excellently gruff, Shawn MacGowan-esque voice, which is complimented by harmonies from the rest of the combo (Chad Carter, Rex Bailey and Fred Studler - all multi-instrumentalists) and Bailey has a sweet tone to his singing when he takes the lead on "Orders".

This takes me back to times that I spent drinking in pubs in the 80's when Irish friends of mine would perform with one eye out for immigration. Really great stuff! The Shillaly Brothers are up for a much deserved Academy Award for their song "Pop" from the film, White Irish Drinkers - wish them luck and check out their Facebook page!

Sad

Johnny Otis of 'Willie and the Hand Jive' dies
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this should be interesting

Johnny Ramone's autobiography to be released
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